Published May 23, 2018 at 5:53 AM | Updated at 1:23 PM PDT on May 23, 2018

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Cyntoia Brown, a woman serving a life sentence for killing a man when she was a 16-year-old prostitute, asks for a second chance during a clemency hearing Wednesday, May 23, 2018, at Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville, Tenn. It is her first bid for freedom before a parole board since the 2004 crime.

What to Know

Cyntoia Brown is serving a life sentence for the murder of a man when she was 16 years old

Her lawyers say she was a sex-trafficking victim and feared for her life, while prosecutors say she shot and robbed him

Celebrities have used social media to call for her freedom

A six-member Tennessee Board of Parole is divided on whether to release a woman serving a life sentence for killing a man when she was a 16-year-old prostitute.

Two members of the board voted Wednesday to release Cyntoia Brown, two denied her request for clemency, and two said she should serve 25 years of her sentence. A seventh board member was not present. The decision will ultimately be up to Gov. Bill Haslam.

Brown was tried as an adult and convicted of first-degree murder in the 2004 killing of 43-year-old Johnny Allen. Brown's lawyers have said she was a sex-trafficking victim who killed a man because she feared for her life. Prosecutors said she shot him and robbed him.

During the hearing, Brown apologized for killing Allen in 2004 and said she thinks every day about what she did and can't take it back. But she told the board she is a changed woman 14 years later.

White Official Tells Black Woman He Belonged to Master Race

Some Leavenworth County, Kansas, officials are calling for Commissioner Louis Klemp's resignation after he insulted a black woman who had just presented a land-use study to the commission. "I don't want you to think I am picking on you because we are part of the master race. You have a gap in your teeth. We are part of the master race, don't you forget that," Klemp said.